First off, I'm an American male. I'm in my mid-50's. I've lived a middle class life. My experiences are a bit broader than many Americans. I've been overseas, made good friends with people who don't look like me, and have accepted beliefs that would make many Americans cringe.
In fact, my beliefs would shock most Americans. I'm spiritual without being religious. I'm not a Christian, and never played one on TV. I was born and raised Christian, even had a mid-life religious crisis in my 30s and was involved in a conservative Christian denomination, but I had too many doubts and left.
The absolute belief system Christians have created did not make logical sense. The Club system of Christianity does not compute. Either you are in the Club or you're damned to hell forever and ever. You get one chance to join the Club, and failing that you ARE OUT! Made no sense. How could an all knowing, ever powerful, but loving Father God, create a system that guaranteed failure by most of His Creation? What about those that lived before the Holy Gimmick? How about those who never heard about the Holy Gimmick? Made no sense. I intellectually and spiritually walked away from Christianity.
So what do I believe? I basically subscribe to the Hindu system of beliefs. These can be summarized here by the American Hindu Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami.
Hinduism is an ancient religion, more than 10,000 years old, and predates the Abrahamic religions by thousands of years. There was no founder. The knowledge contained in Hinduism was learned by students and teachers and passed down as an oral tradition from early times until mankind learned to write.
Sure, I know what you are thinking: pagan religions, thousands of gods and goddesses, Cow worship and such. Cannot be true religion. Not so. You are thinking like a Westerner, without any understanding about what you hold an opinion on.
I won't go into a full defense of Hinduism in this blog, but we can explore this in a future post. Hindu's believe in one true, Supreme Being. But what about all the gods and goddesses? Well, for some Hindus, they have a personal relationship with the Supreme Being and so use a personalized label or image or using the word that comes from the Sanskrit, an Avatar. This is no different than talking about the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Three aspects for one God. Some Hindus hold no Avatars as special.
The key to Hinduism is that it is tolerant of other viewpoints. We believe that there are Many Paths to the Mountain Top. (We also believe there is a faster way to the Top and many will find it in this lifetime or in future lifetimes. Keep trying and you'll get there.) So, personally, I don't care if you are a Christian or that you are not a Hindu, but I suspect the reverse isn't true. I wonder what other "modern" religion is similarly biased, hmmm.
Anyway, that's enough for now.
Aum.
Dandapani
Hinduism is an ancient religion, more than 10,000 years old, and predates the Abrahamic religions by thousands of years. There was no founder. The knowledge contained in Hinduism was learned by students and teachers and passed down as an oral tradition from early times until mankind learned to write.
Sure, I know what you are thinking: pagan religions, thousands of gods and goddesses, Cow worship and such. Cannot be true religion. Not so. You are thinking like a Westerner, without any understanding about what you hold an opinion on.
I won't go into a full defense of Hinduism in this blog, but we can explore this in a future post. Hindu's believe in one true, Supreme Being. But what about all the gods and goddesses? Well, for some Hindus, they have a personal relationship with the Supreme Being and so use a personalized label or image or using the word that comes from the Sanskrit, an Avatar. This is no different than talking about the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Three aspects for one God. Some Hindus hold no Avatars as special.
The key to Hinduism is that it is tolerant of other viewpoints. We believe that there are Many Paths to the Mountain Top. (We also believe there is a faster way to the Top and many will find it in this lifetime or in future lifetimes. Keep trying and you'll get there.) So, personally, I don't care if you are a Christian or that you are not a Hindu, but I suspect the reverse isn't true. I wonder what other "modern" religion is similarly biased, hmmm.
Anyway, that's enough for now.
Aum.
Dandapani
